Escaping Death Row

24 Mar 2014: I have come across a very interesting article where it claims that a Florida man, Eddie Lee Hall, has escaped Death Row due to a mental disability.

Twelve years ago the state of Florida prohibited the execution of those with a mental disability.

It is suggested though that it is only if a person has an IQ score of 70 or below that they are deemed to have a mental disability.

Eddie IQ score is 75 and he and his lawyers are arguing that due to other factors he is still mentally disabled.

My opinion is that the death penalty is not a good idea at all for anyone, in any state or country.

Eddie has been in gaol for decades and the system must have known he was mentally disabled before now, so why hasn’t he been cared for better. Why have a prisoner in gaol for decades before putting him to death? Wouldn’t they have decided to put him to death at the conclusion of his trial or have they been processing this case for that long, wasting tax payers dollars, when a mental disability has been staring them in the face for this long?

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Carrie from Kentucky USA posted on 24 Apr 2014Cases where offenders are sentenced to capital punishment often drag on for decades because of the appeals process. I hope that if this man had had an IQ below 70, he would never have been sentenced to death in the first place. Given that it was borderline, I'm not surprised his case has taken so long, probably through multiple appeals. I don't agree with the death penalty either, but as long as we're stuck with it, I do NOT want to limit the appeals process. We've had too many cases where the person who was sentenced to death has been exonerated.